Frank Bodani: For Mike Mauti, talking about 2011 at PSU was therapeutic

Penn State head coach Bill O'Brien, left, embraces Michael Mauti following his team's 39-28 victory over Northwestern on Oct. 6, 2012. Mauti, now with the Minnesota Vikings, is featured prominently in a new book about the 2011 Big Ten football season. (Daily Record / Sunday News -- File)

York, PA -

We already knew Mike Mauti was a speak-your-mind kind of leader.

We saw his team "loyalty" video after NCAA sanctions hit Penn State.

We heard his simple and straight-forward talk in postgame media rooms.

We remember his heartfelt eulogy of Joe Paterno.

So, in one sense, it makes sense that he's highlighted in the upcoming release, "Fourth and Long: The Fight for the Soul of College Football." The book by John Bacon profiles a year in the life of four Big Ten teams -- Ohio State, Michigan, Northwestern and Penn State.

The book is set perfectly to describe the sweeping turmoil and change as Penn State weathered the fallout of the Jerry Sandusky scandal and harsh NCAA sanctions while transitioning to a new coaching staff.

And Nittany Lion followers are buzzing about the book's fly-on-the-wall, eyebrow-raising scenes involving key Penn State football figures -- much of it from Mauti, the former star linebacker now with the Minnesota Vikings.

It can be seen as ripping away a bit of the Penn State curtain.

The meatiest parts include former assistant Jay Paterno, athletic director Dave Joyner and former strength and conditioning coach John Thomas.

Reached this week, Mauti confirmed all of his quotes and verified the stories told through his eyes.

"It's all true stuff," he said. "We lived it."

We talked at length about his involvement in the book and his reasoning for opening up about his program in ways that seemed forbidden.

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Mauti didn't talk to Bacon to gain publicity or financial gain.

He wasn't trying to be a whistleblower.

"A couple of people say, 'Don't kiss and tell, not at Penn State.' But this is what happened," Mauti said. "If someone asks me about something, I'm going to tell them how it is."

Here's the other part of it, though. Even Mauti admits he had followed the script of keeping negative Penn State football thoughts and comments out of public view.

Until last year and the book.

Talk to Frank

York Daily Record/Sunday News reporter Frank Bodani talks Penn State football with readers every Monday night.

First, talking with Bacon ended up being a kind of therapy for him. Who really understood what the players had been through since November of 2011?

Close followers of the team got hints, at least. They heard claims of a near-team insurrection in the middle of the 2011 Illinois game -- the final victory of Joe Paterno's career. And they have debated the merit of Jay Paterno as a quarterback coach for years.

Bacon's book provides details of that snowy day in Beaver Stadium through the eyes of Mauti and Zordich. In short, players were livid that Jay Paterno was still playing struggling QB Rob Bolden despite day-long misfires that had become a weekly pattern.

It simmered over at halftime with Paterno and players cursing at each other and both sides being restrained.

Part of that could be chalked up to high emotions in a physical game.

This cannot: "That dude was an example of everything a coach should not be," Mauti said in the book.

* * *

But why say this now?

It came down to honesty and timing for Mauti. The Paternos were no longer running the team, meaning there was no longer an 80-something head coach to protect.

Mauti and teammates also just couldn't take anymore.

As Joe Paterno aged and battled one physical problem after another, he became more distant from his players. It became tougher keeping the team together than most understood -- even before the Sandusky scandal and sanctions, Mauti said.

Players became burdened with protecting an image that didn't square.

"Some people might take this the wrong way, that I'm disrespecting the Paterno family," Mauti said this week. "Don't get me wrong, I respect Joe Paterno . . . I owe him nothing but respect for what he did for my family, what he did for me and my brother and father.

"But we weren't getting the same Joe our dads got. We always had the same respect, we just didn't have the same connection."

(Jay Paterno did not respond to requests to share his thoughts on the book or Mauti's comments).

Finally, things fractured in 2011. Later, with a new head coach in place, Mauti and others felt like they could talk about this all -- needed to talk about it.

He stands behind what he said in "Fourth and Long" -- calling out Thomas for allegedly recruiting Penn State players to join him at Georgia; and calling out Joyner for not truly supporting the players when he took over as athletic director.

Still, Mauti wants people to know that he wasn't shooting off wildly one day out of frustration or over some make-believe vendetta.

He loves his old head coach, his team and his university -- during and after their toughest times.

"No deeper meaning than telling the truth," he said.

That's a part of his love for Penn State, too.

Maybe the toughest part. Frank Bodani is a sports reporter for the Daily Record/Sunday News. Reach him at 771-2104, fbodani@ydr.com or @YDRPennState on Twitter.

DAILY RECORD / SUNDAY NEWS -- FILE

Former Penn State linebacker Mike Mauti makes some eye-raising comments in a new book about the Nittany Lions' 2011 season. 'It's all true stuff,' he said. 'We lived it.'

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